On Saturday, Roach Feed & Seed in Garland will celebrate its 80th anniversary with a ceremony, cake and a commemorative plaque from the Garland Landmark Society.

The party isn’t just about eight decades of retail in the heart of downtown. It celebrates the generations of generations of people who have come through its doors.

You can tell a lot about a town by its feed store. You tend to remember every one that you have visited.

Chain stores, with their volume buying power, are challenging the independent feed stores. But Jack McDaniel of Roach has seen his business evolve. Faced with the choice of sticking with the tack or putting a new saddle on the horse, he wisely chose to do both.

On the wall of his wood-framed office is a quote often attributed — incorrectly — to Charles Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

It is McDaniel’s mantra, and an accurate summary of Darwin’s idea. It’s the reason this 83-year-young man is celebrating a milestone for a business only slightly younger than he is. Many feed stores have closed as farming communities become engulfed by urban sprawl, but McDaniel says he has adapted.

“We can take the new and blend it with the best of the old and still be fine,” McDaniel says as we sip Dr Pepper longnecks from the fridge.

New customers

The new customers aren’t looking for cotton seed or tractor lubricant. They want pet care, not livestock and farming supplies. Roach services both markets.

McDaniel pulls out a smorgasbord of high-end pet foods that sell like hot cakes. The labels tout ingredients like bison, venison, wild boar and chicken with sweet potatoes. The bird-food aisle looks like the bulk bins at Whole Foods Market.

We pass by the indoor incubator area of newly hatched Black Australorp chicks to get to a Quonset-style barn out back, built in the mid-1940s. An employee is loading freshly baled hay into the barn. Nearby, an onion shed houses agriculture supplies next to overflows of pet foods and chicken coops.

“There were a lot of onion farmers in the area in the ’20s and ’30s and the onions would be stored here, and then the rail line ran alongside of this building,” McDaniel says.

Outside, a rooster is crowing on the way to the pet room, which houses lop-eared bunnies, doves, parakeets, hamsters, guinea pigs and more.

The garden nook portion of the store overflows with herbs, vegetable plants and flowers. Inside the store are rows of organic lawn products, flytraps, cowbells and an antique seafoam-green plant rack holding seeds sold by the scoop.

The feed store that has been near the corner of Main and Fifth streets since 1933 has figured out how to take care of the farmers and non-farmers alike.

The original business was started by W.H. Roach. His son Haskell “Hack” Roach later partnered with McDaniel’s father, and the families stayed in business together. McDaniel took over the feed store in 1991, when Haskell Roach died. Both families have been involved in the local community.

Garland development

McDaniel has been on numerous committees for the redevelopment of downtown Garland. He takes me on a tour to show how the town square area is evolving. He points to new retail and residential projects being developed around the downtown Garland Dallas Area Rapid Transit station. He points to the old depot, now a museum.

I could visualize the landscape of the past in contrast with the new elements going up right before our eyes. McDaniel sees room for both preservation and growth, just like at the feed store.

Doris, his wife of 64 years, was instrumental in developing the special education program in the Garland schools. She helped with the plants and seeds at the feed store as well.

McDaniel’s son-in-law Scott Freeze now works in the store. His grandchildren come to visit the baby chicks when they can.

Walking the store’s aisles, I see a young boy leaning over the box of fluffy chicks. Another child relishes the selection of tiny dog treats in flavors that sound like a cafe menu.

“You just have to change with the times,” McDaniel says. “That’s the only way we could still be here for 80 years.”

The big shindig

Roach Feed & Seed will celebrate its 80th anniversary at 2 p.m. Saturday. There will be live music and refreshments. The store is at 409 Main St. in Garland. roachfeedandseed.com Look for Roach Feed & Seed Co. on Facebook.

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